Summit of the Mound

The result seemed at the time almost too good to be true. Here indeed was a temple platform: but the walls which we found ourselves tracing at the summit of the mound were not the platform itself but those of the temple which stood upon it, and this in places clearly remained standing to a height of over six feet.

Furthermore, having already outlined its

plan on the surface, we were able in tracing the walls, to enter the building

in an orderly manner through the main entrance door. In addition, as we reached

the inside of the first vestibule, to our complete astonishment we discovered

that the inner wall faces were covered with painted frescoes. Work on the other

side of the hill meanwhile had revealed the source of the mosaic cones, which

formed an ornamental band along the parapet of the platform.

So the temple with which we were dealing

was not, as at AL ‘Ubaid, of the Sumerian Dynastic period, but of the earlier

and little known proto literate, corresponding to the stone foundations which I

had discovered under the later platform at AL ‘Ubaid itself.

As for the wall paintings, one began to

see, first of all a dado of plum  colored

paint, exactly matching that used in the proto literate painted pottery of

Jemdet Nasr. Then a band of elaborate geometric ornament, and above this the

feet and legs of men and animals, evidently forming part of a mythical scene of

the sort one sees in cylinder seals of the period.

Period of great anxiety

Now for ourselves came a period of great anxiety. For we found that what our wall tracers were cutting into, was not the ordinary soft “fill” inside a room, but very hard and carefully laid mud brick. Now we could understand why the part of the building, which had survived, was so remarkably well preserved.

The whole of it had at some time been

filled up solid with brickwork, converting it into an upper story for the

platform, upon which a yet higher temple could be built. This was desperately

serious, since the wall paintings were found to adhere more strongly to the

filling than to the plaster on which they were painted; and when this filling

was removed, they came away with it. Now was the time at which, under different

circumstances one would have closed down the excavation and awaited the advice

of European experts. However, this was the first year of the war and no such

help could possibly be obtained.